FIRST PECTUS UP SURGERY TO A PATIENT WITH MARFAN SYNDROME PERFORMED BY DR. ANDRÉS VARELA

18Jan 2019

Hospital Puerta de Hierro was once again the stage of a new operation with Pectus Up, this time the first one on a patient with Marfan syndrome.

Dr. Andrés Varela has successfully operated on a patient affected by PectusExcavatum again. The patient had a previous aortic aneurysm repair surgery performed by Dr. Alberto Forteza Gil, Head of the Cardiac Surgery Service of the University Hospital Quirónsalud Madrid and Cardiovascular Surgery Head of Hospital Puerta de Hierro. Right after this surgery, Dr. Varela, together with Dr. Álvaro Sánchez Calle, thoracic surgeon of Hospital Puerta de Hierro, performed the surgical repair of his PectusExcavatum.

This is the first time that a patient affected by Marfan syndrome is operated on for PectusExcavatum with PectusUp, the extrathoracic implant developed by Ventura Medical Technologies.

Marfan syndrome is an inherited disorder that involves a morphological alteration affecting the skeleton, ligaments and muscles, caused by bone growth differences and ligament weakness. The damage caused by Marfan syndrome can be mild or severe, and only a third of those affected have actual serious symptoms. The most frequent chest abnormalities are associated with the sternum. In more severe Marfan cases, the PectusExcavatum can worsen respiratory function, especially if other thoracic changes occur. In the absence of orthopedic management with correctors, surgical treatment is the only option, and PectusUp is one of the methods to choose to treat this pathology.

The PectusUp is an extrathoracic implant for a minimally invasive correction of PectusExcavatum that substantially reduces complexity and risks of the surgery, which allows shorter recovery time and very satisfactory results. Dr. Varela, head of the Thoracic Surgery Service at the Hospital Puerta de Hierro Majadahonda, University Hospital Quirónsalud Madrid and Hospital La Luz, has already performed more than a dozen interventions with the PectusUp, and all of them proved successful.